Defining the V Rekindled

Feb 21-27, 2011


After a couple of warm weeks, this week started out similar, with temperatures in the high single digits and sunny skies, but by the end had turned cold again.
Monday morning I got up after having a productive weekend, and got right to work cooking up a storm before work. I killed the remainder of my time watching some internet videos, and reading before leaving around 140. Work was similar to last week, with little to do, but play games and watch videos. After work I went home and watched some T.V. while typing some more blog, then went to bed.
Tuesday morning I woke up feeling a little congested, but went about business as usual. At work things were the same as Monday, except for a text I received letting me know that the gym I had been absent from was having a promotional 20% discount for the end of the month. I had been planning to get back in and get in shape and this price break was a signal that I needed to get on it. After work I headed home again, and relaxed with some tea, hoping to kill my congestion before it got out of hand.
To no avail, I woke up Wednesday morning even more stuffed up after a scary brush with what may have been sleep apnea. I remember waking up but not being able to move, or breathe through my nose or mouth for a solid 10 seconds, but quickly recovered with a gasp and some nose blowing. I laid around for a while hating on my congestion before getting up and starting my day. Once I was on the go it seemed to clear up a bit, but on my way to work I picked up some decongestants at the pharmacy. Also on my way to work, I stopped at the gym to renew my membership. However, I was told that the promotional deal was only for people paying by cash, so I told them I would come back later with the cash, then went to the bank and pulled out enough for the gym and the external hard drive I wanted to buy. At work it was getting increasingly hectic as the Korean teachers were trying to finish up all their phone calls and report cards before the semester finished and they all left. June however, was all finished and it was her last day with us, so when work was finished we all went out for some chicken and beer. Living the life of alcoholics, John and I partied with her, while the rest of the teachers kept it casual, and after several bottles of soju and pitchers of beer the three of us were pretty drunk. June left with some of the teachers, while John and I stayed to finish off the beers and pay the bill. I made it home by 2am, tried to drink some water before falling asleep, but ultimately failed.
Keeping to his word from the night before, John called me at 830 Thursday morning, because I wanted to make it to the gym and TechnoMart before work, but have had problems sleeping in as of late. I must have still been drunk, because I got up and apart from my apartment being a sauna and my congestion, I was feeling pretty good. Before I got ready to go anywhere I decided to answer some emails, and drink some water to rehydrate. I opened the window and door to let some of the heat out, since the shared floor heating had been turned up to around 34 degrees, then got to business. It wasn't long however before the sinking feeling of a hangover was looming in my future. Knowing that I probably wouldn't survive a workout, I laid back down for an hour or so, which was the downfall of my day. When I woke from my nap I felt horrendous, both hungover and super congested, but did not want to disappoint John after he had taken time to call me. So, I got up and got ready for work, but did not make any food. I left my apartment and went to TechnoMart to see about buying the 1TB drive I had priced out. I did some more price checking, feeling better with the fresh air, and eventually settled on buying one from a guy who dropped his price from 158 000W to 140 000W (approx. $120) since I was paying in cash. Feeling good about my purchase I headed back to Bongcheon to pay the gym and go to work. On the way back I only made it half way before the heat and movement of the train took its tool on me, and I started to sweat and get light headed like I was going to black out. I quickly got off at Sindaebang station and found a bench to sit down on and cool off. I got on the next train through and made it back in time to get home for another shower before going to pay the gym, and then to work. At work, I sat around feeling terrible, but was joined by John who also wasn't feeling 100%. The only comfort that we had in our misery, was that June was feeling way worse than the both of us combined. I struggled through work, and when it was all over, headed straight home to crawl into bed.
After sleeping it off, Friday morning was a welcome reprieve from how I felt Thursday. I was still stuffed up, and had developed a bit of a cough, but all in all I was feeling good. I skipped out on the gym, to conserve my energy to fight the virus, and spent the morning watching T.V. and cooking. Work went by much better as well, and aside from teaching the last lesson to a few of my classes, I just watched videos and played some games. I didn't want to over do it after work, so I just went home and got some rest before the weekend.
Saturday morning I got up before 11 as I thought John and I were going to meet at Chrissy's apartment to help relieve her of some items she wouldn't be taking with her when she leaves. I called her only to ind out that she wasn't going to be home until around dinner, because she was out meeting with some friends before she leaves. I took the the rest of the day to do some more blogging, and got within a couple weeks of being caught up. Eventually Chrissy was back in the neighbourhood, so I swung over to pick up a couple boxes of things, and to drop off my hard drive so she could put her pictures from Shanghai and the DMZ on it. She said she would put them on it and return it to me the following Wednesday when she would be around again to pick up her diploma I was to get from the school. After walking home with a butt load of goods, I started getting plans together for the rest of the night. It was James' and Steve's last night out, and he wanted to go to Hongdae after having dinner in my old neighbourhood, but since I live so far away from there now, I decided to just meet them in Hongdae at some point. In the end it worked out that Alex and Loiuse were not going to have dinner with the group, and we made plans to eat at a Peruvian restaurant in Hapjeong, just one stop away from Hongdae. After diner we took a cab over to meet them at a hipster bar called Over Sound, where we split a couple bottles of vodka for an incredibly good price, and sat around chatting for a few hours. After Over Sound, we headed to another bar, the name of which I don't remember. It was an underground place, that was full of drunk foreigners looking for last call pick-ups. We put our things in a booth and just hung out around it until a group of drunks thought they might like to sit there. We didn't have a problem with them sitting there, but when we offered to move our coats, mostly so that they wouldn't steal them, the girls of the group insisted that they owned them and caused a commotion. I stayed surprisingly level headed, and explained to the one guy in the group that they were our coats and that everything would be cool as long as we just moved them. Louise however, was getting nothing but a hard time with the drunkest girl of the group, and it escalated quickly when Alex jumped in and made it known that he wasn't going to risk his jacket going missing. A few bouncers came over to calm the situation down, and once cooler heads prevailed, we got our jackets and moved to another table. After that we all had one more drink before calling it a night. We left the bar just before 530, and got some food on the street in order to kill the last few minutes before the subway started running again. I took the first subway home, and was safely in bed by 630am.
I slept in until he early afternoon on Sunday, and then spent the rest of the day hanging out. I got out of the house only long enough to get some groceries, but then it was back to movie watching and slugging about. Before bed I made the weekly call home and hoped for clear sinuses in the morning.


sun - slept late hung out got groceries cleaned